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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Polynesian Panthers

    Polynesians in 1970s New Zealand fight back against dawn raids by the police

  2. Umuganda: Rwanda's community work scheme

    In 1975, President Habyarimana introduced Umuganda, compulsory, weekly community work

  3. Dame Carmen Callil: Feminist publisher

    Dame Carmen Callil, who died in October this year, founded a feminist publisher in 1972

  4. Campaigning against sex-selection in India

    A first-hand account of the 1980s campaign against the sex-selective abortion of girls

  5. Albania’s Stalinist purges

    In the 1970s, Albania’s Stalinist leader, Enver Hoxha, launched a series of purges

  6. The Little Black Book survival guide

    In 1985, a guide was written for young black men in the US who were stopped by the police

  7. Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech

    Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's career-defining speech in 2012

  8. Arrested for wearing trousers in Sudan

    In 2002, Amiera Osman Hamed was put on trial after being arrested for wearing trousers

  9. Theatre siege in Moscow

    It is 20 years since Chechen rebels took an entire theatre full of people hostage

  10. The Iranian Revolution and women

    We hear what life was like during, and after the Iranian Revolution in 1979

  11. Indonesia’s indigenous people take a stand

    The first ever Congress of Indigenous People of the Archipelago of Indonesia in 1999

  12. Founder of the Cuban National Ballet

    In 1959, Cuba’s most famous ballet dancer formed Cuba’s National Ballet Company

  13. Cuba's boxing ban

    In 1962, Fidel Castro banned professional boxing in Cuba, causing some amateurs to defect

  14. The ‘army’ that taught Cuba to read and write

    In 1961, Fidel Castro launched a campaign aimed to eradicate illiteracy in Cuba.

  15. Cuban Missile Crisis: The showdown

    The final days of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis in the Pentagon and the Kremlin

  16. Cuban Missile Crisis: The photos

    The CIA expert whose job was to interpret photographs of missiles in Cuba

  17. Cesar Chavez’s campaign for farm workers

    How the leader of a labour movement became a US civil rights hero

  18. Geisha mountain top strike

    In 1937, geisha from Osaka sat on a mountain for a week until their union was recognised

  19. Torturing strikers in South Korea

    A strike for better work conditions became a divisive moment in South Korea's history

  20. Disney animators' strike

    In 1941, the animators at Walt Disney's studios went on strike for nine weeks over pay

  21. UK’s ‘Winter of Discontent’

    In 1979, British gravediggers went on strike over pay

  22. The beginnings of Notting Hill Carnival

    In 1959, Claudia Jones held a Caribbean party, planting the seeds for the famous carnival

  23. The Harder They Come

    Jimmy Cliff spoke about the film that brought reggae music to the world in 1972

  24. The fall of Slobodan Milosevic

    How the Yugoslavian president was forced from office in October 2000

  25. The release of Gilad Shalit

    Israeli solider Gilad Shalit was freed after being held hostage for more than five years

  26. The funk and soul club that changed Manchester

    Manchester’s first racially inclusive nightclub

  27. Dassler brothers’ rift

    Brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler would go on to create global firms Adidas and Puma.

  28. The raising of the Mary Rose

    King Henry VIII's warship, The Mary Rose, was raised from the seabed in October 1982

  29. Castrating Pablo Escobar's hippos

    Pablo Escobar's pet hippos were found roaming Colombian waterways in 2007

  30. Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Schindler

    In 1940, Chiune Sugihara saved the lives of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis

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